The estimated sign (℮) is a mark required to be appended to the nominal mass or volume printed on prepackaged goods for sale within the European Union. It certifies that the actual contents of the package comply with specified criteria for estimation:

• the average quantity of product in a batch of prepackages shall not be less than the nominal quantity stated on the label;
• the proportion of prepackages having a negative error greater than the tolerable negative error shall be sufficiently small for batches of prepackages to satisfy the requirements of the official reference test as specified in legislation;
• no prepackage having a negative error greater than twice the tolerable negative error may bear the estimated sign.

The tolerable negative error is related to the nominal quantity and varies between 9% on prepackages nominally 50 g or mL or less, to 1.5% on packages nominally 1 kg or L or more.

The estimated sign looks like a lower-case "e" and its shape is precisely defined by an EU directive. This sign has been added to the Unicode list of characters, just as the symbol for the Euro has been, and can be considered a new basic character in a typeface. It is character U+212E (℮).

External links

References with typographic specifications

• Evertype article
• Council Directive 71/316/EEC

Use of the sign

• Council Directive of 20 January 1976 [PDF file] on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the making-up by weight or by volume of certain prepackaged products
• Nederlands Meetinstituut [NMi]
• WELMEC Working Group 6 on e-marked prepackages [WELMEC WG6]